One year ago, we launched the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC) to develop the first-ever comprehensive redistricting plan that can unrig Republican control over the redistricting process, undo gerrymandering and restore fairness to our democracy. I am proud to report that NDRC has had a very successful first year, with big plans for 2018 and beyond.

2017 Accomplishments

With no precedent for a comprehensive redistricting strategy, we set out to create a plan and start building the foundation for this work. Since no two states are the same, our model allows us to adapt and customize how we can be most effective in each state. The four pillars of our strategy include:

A robust litigation strategy in states with unconstitutional maps

Reforming the redistricting process where possible, including supporting ballot initiatives to create fairer redistricting processes in the states

Building the infrastructure needed for successful advocacy during the redistricting process in 2021, including raising public awareness, building a grassroots network, and developing state-of-the-art mapping software

Electing Democrats in key state and local races that will play a role in the next round of redistricting

With our model in place, we immediately and aggressively began executing on our work. We effectively established NDRC as the leading redistricting organization, created a strong financial foundation, launched initial programmatic activity in key strategy areas, and began building a strong grassroots network around the country.

In 2017, we worked to advance our goals around the country by:

Raising more than $11 million for NDRC and our affiliated-organizations, the National Redistricting Action Fund (501c4) and the National Redistricting Foundation (501c3),

Helping to elect Ralph Northam and Democratic legislators down the ballot in Virginia by investing $1.2 million. For the first time since 1991, Virginia will have a Democratic governor with veto power over the redistricting process,

Investing $50,000 in a local campaign to protect three state Senators from a brazen partisan recall attempt in Nevada. These recalls are an attempt by Republicans to flip the majority in the Nevada state Senate,

Generating extensive local and national press coverage about the damaging effects of gerrymandering and NDRC’s plan to achieve fair maps,

Launching a partnership with Organizing For Action (OFA), which included NDRC Chairman Eric Holder digitally joining more than 60 grassroots house parties around the country, and

Building a robust and extensive grassroots email network that both supports us financially and engages on redistricting issues nationally and in the states.

Plans for 2018 and Beyond

We have specific, ambitions plans to build on this success in 2018. Overall, our goal for the year is to move the needle on achieving a fair redistricting process in 2021. To that end, we will be focused on:

Electing Democrats into targeted races that affect redistricting
We will release our 2018 redistricting targets early next year. Our targets will help define the states and races that are most important for redistricting, and we will work with allied organizations and the Democratic Party infrastructure to channel resources and progressive energy into these elections.

Supporting reform efforts in targeted states
We will support key ballot initiatives that positively reform the redistricting process. This will include both funding the signature gathering efforts to get them on the ballot and the initiative campaigns themselves, as needed.

Successfully moving litigation through the courts
We will continue to pursue litigation against gerrymandered maps in targeted states. To date we and our affiliated organizations have active litigation in Virginia, Texas, North Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania.

Building necessary infrastructure for the redistricting process
We will provide leadership and funding to create high-quality infrastructure that will prepare us for the redistricting process itself. This includes building the tech infrastructure for innovative mapping capabilities, partnering with OFA and others to grow a robust grassroots network, and continuing to raise awareness about gerrymandering in the states.

Elevating the Census in the national conversation
Without an adequate Census, the initial reapportionment of seats will be skewed and the redistricting process itself will be faulty. It is very important that we have a fair an accurate count, which is not currently on track to happen. We are currently interviewing candidates for Census Director and this will be an important piece of our work.

We see the negative effects of Republican gerrymandering in 2011 every time this Congress votes. The NDRC is leading an aggressive effort to dramatically reform the redistricting process across the country and achieve fair maps that accurately reflect the will of the American people. With 2018 as a critical year in setting up the building blocks for the next redistricting process, the time for this work is now. We have made tangible gains in our first year, and we are energetic and confident about the opportunity for impact we have moving forward.

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In the News

I have no idea or particular opinion about whether Garrison Keillor is guilty of anything, though it's always struck me as odd. But this somewhat but not quite illuminating article gums up the works a bit when taken as a part of a whole. The whole, of course, being accusations flying hither and yon with little if any explanation - even when they could stand some.

(THREAD) Yulya Alferova—ex-wife of Russian oligarch Artem Klyushin and a member of Trump's entourage in Moscow in 2013—is yet another witness who confirms, albeit inadvertently, Trump lied about what happened at the Ritz Moscow. The list of such witnesses is now very, very long. pic.twitter.com/BViILTZP67

On the hamster wheel of continual work, production and consumption, and Hebert Marcuse's.dreams.

[....] Marcuse did not live to see the 1980s, however [....] But his ideas lived on. In a 2004 essay for Harper’s magazine, for example, novelist and essayist Mark Slouka took to task the U.S. obsession with work [....]

One woman’s account of clandestine meetings, financial transactions, and legal pacts designed to hide an extramarital affair.....American Media, Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer, had paid a hundred and fifty thousand dollars for exclusive rights to McDougal’s story ...David Pecker, AMI CEO, describes the President as “a personal friend... he never printed a word about Trump without his approval.”

Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason?
Why, if it prosper, none dare call it treason.

Was Trump diminishing the significance of the word treason, projecting onto the opposition (as he so often does) his own transgressions, by accusing Democrats of treason for not applauding him at the SOU?

Talking heads don't appear to have had much time to look at the details yet. Reporters are waiting on the formal announcement from Rod Rosenstein of the indictments. It is clear that they are directly related to Putin, not clear yet whether to the Trump administration.

A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia returned an indictment Friday against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities accused of violating US laws to interfere with US elections and political processes [....]

[....] in a blow to President Donald Trump, the GOP plan to enshrine his four-part immigration framework came the furthest of any proposal from reaching the 60-vote margin needed for passage, failing by 39-60. A competing bipartisan agreement got rejected, 54-45, after a furious White House campaign to defeat it, including a Thursday veto threat.

WASHINGTON — Steve Bannon, who served as President Donald Trump’s chief strategist, was interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller over multiple days this week, NBC News has learned from two sources familiar with the proceedings.

When a transgender woman told doctors at a hospital in New York that she wanted to breast-feed her pregnant partner’s baby, they put her on a regimen of drugs that included an anti-nausea medication licensed in Britain and Canada but banned in the United States.

Within a month, according to the journal Transgender Health, the woman, 30, who was born male, was producing droplets of milk. Within three months — two weeks before the baby’s due date — she had increased her production to eight ounces of milk a day [....]

President Trump endorsed a 25-cent gas tax hike to pay for infrastructure at a White House meeting this morning with senior administration officials and members of Congress from both parties, according to two sources with direct knowledge. Trump also said he was open to other ways to pay for infrastructure, according to a source with direct knowledge.